Another reason to opt out of real ID.

• Author: Frankel, Larry
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

Dear Editor:

Your piece on the REAL ID rebellion in the March issue of State Legislatures covered many of the compelling reasons why states should opt out of the REAL ID regime. However, the article did not mention that there is a practical alternative to REAL ID that will make us safer.

Prior to the passage of the REAL ID Act, a negotiated rulemaking process to allow states to create their own individual secure driver's licenses had been established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. This, rather than the REAL ID Act, was recommended by the 9/11 Commission. Representatives of the federal and state governments and a range of advocacy groups had already begun meeting in a collaborative effort to set the standards for making our driver's licenses more secure.

But the REAL ID Act derailed that process by forcing states to comply with new national driver's licenses standards. Had that negotiated rulemaking process been allowed to continue, and not been shut down by...